The sun peaked over the cliffs of the badlands, bringing with it a new day. A new day, but no new opportunities. Chrysalis stood on the plateau that once held her home, the Hive of the Changelings, now covered in shards of the living labyrinth that she once made her home in. That she had raised countless generations of Changelings in. Now, it stood as an uncomfortable show of what the Changelings had become.
Nothing. Not even a defeated army who had lost. Just stone and shame. Truly, it was the worst outcome for her race. Laying her hoof on a piece of stone, the mare grit her teeth, a tear freeing itself to travel down her cheek. That traitor…It wasn’t enough for him to turn his back on everyling. To turn his back on her. He had to bring enemies back. He had to bring the spirit of chaos himself to her doorstep. He had to lead them through her home, teach them how to disable- no, destroy the throne that had kept her people safe for as long as she could remember,
He had to destroy everything. And to what end? To become the new leader of a people stolen from her. To usurp her. And honestly? She didn’t even mind that. If her ‘lings had decided to follow him, and he’d built his own hive, fine. The Changelings would live on. But to change them? To do what he did? No, even that would’ve been acceptable. The changelings that weren’t corrupted would live on. It was what came after that was unforgivable.
She remembered every moment vividly, a horror playing endlessly in her mind. When she crawled from the rubble of her life, only to see those horrific creatures, some twenty or thirty of them, floating around, and assisting the very beings that destroyed their lives. Celebrating this fact. And when she rose, hissing in fury at her life stolen from her, they stood alongside those same ponies, magic ready to strike at their own queen! And HER! That self-righteous, evil mare! Celestia, standing in the center, horn aglow in a threat. This after she’d SEEN the very ‘lings desperate for love, time and again, this after she’d been in the very home of them, seen their suffering first-hoof! This after she spat in the Queen’s face, rejected her offer of peace. And to what? Offer that same hoof over to those abominations, led by a traitor who lacked the wherewithal to even survive without a pony telling him what to do, no doubt, that she could control yet another race. Another sacrifice to her lust for power.
How quickly they forgot the changelings in the very room they destroyed that didn’t follow their example, either due to loyalty, intelligence, or even time. There were more Changelings in that room than abominations that stood against her. To say nothing of the Changelings that were out of that room at the time.
To say nothing of the grubs or the eggs in the rest of the Hive. To say nothing of the nymphs in the rest of the hive.
Those…monsters…had succeeded in what they’d been trying since before the wedding fiasco.
There was only one Changeling left. And without a swarm? Isolated from the world? Soon, there’d be none. The mighty race, destroyed not with a snarl of defiance, but with a whimper of submission and transformation.
Tears came freely to the queen now. Bitter and sorrowful. With a great hiss of rage and sorrow, she slammed her hoof onto the stone that she had been touching. And she continued to, pummeling the stone in all of her fury and pain, before her body objected, the hunger forcing her to stop. The sounds of impact ceased, leaving the silence broken only by quiet sobs.
And a very quiet, very muffled hiss.
The queen stopped, her breath catching in her throat as her ears perked, swiveling desperately. Just as she was sure that it had been a trick of her mind, she heard it again, coupled with sobs that weren’t her own. Desperately, she flitted around the wreckage, searching for the source of the noises, until she found it.
A large boulder-like piece of her hive, now ringing out with quiet scratches. Her magic flared, willing the hive to bend to her, to open. Though the hive itself was dead, she was able to generate an opening. And from the inside, a soft, green glow flooded out.
Illuminating a large group of grubs and eggs, all held snugly within.
The grubs blinked at the sudden light, withdrawing from it, and the new figure within, fear obvious in their tiny little eyes. Tears blurred Chrysalis’ vision, joy overwhelming the queen, and love flooding through her being. The emotion drew further hissing from the terrified young, one brave little grub even going so far as to present itself, seeking the sustenance.
Chrysalis took the little being in her magic, enveloping it’s world in her lime green magic as she brought him to her chest, offering her hoof for the little thing to chew on as it drained love from her body. Seeing that this new figure meant no harm, and had food, the other grubs soon followed, pulling themselves from the piece of their destroyed home, into the safety of the holes on the queen’s legs.
They survived. She could hardly believe it. But her wonderful hive, that near-living stone that had kept her people safe for so long had done it again. It must have felt the energy building, growing, and moved to protect the young. And it had succeeded.
A smile grew on Chrysalis’ lips as the little grub stopped chewing, satisfied, and gave a great yawn before closing it’s eyes to sleep. She had lost her home. She had lost her people. She had lost the battle.
But the Changelings would live on.
Author's Note
Upon re-watching the finale, I noticed that only the 'throne room' portion of the hive was destroyed.
Still doesn't change I really liked this idea.
